San Francisco, USA, 13th September 2016 / Sciad Newswire / On October 4th-5th, 2016, SynBioBeta will be bringing together the synthetic biology community to recognize excellence in the industry for the 2nd Annual Engineering Biology Awards. The awards are being held at the upcoming SynBioBeta SF 2016 Conference that will be hosted at the South San Francisco Conference Center. SynBioBeta invites the synthetic biology community to join them at SynBioBeta SF 2016, as they reward individuals that are making great strides to shape the landscape of the industry.

SynBioBeta is excited to announce this year’s award recipients:

The “Global Innovation Award” goes to Dr. Drew Endy, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Dr. Endy was named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine. He chaired the DARPA Synthetic Biology study that developed the first roadmap for systematically advancing the engineering of living matter in addition to founding the BioBricks Foundation in 2006. Since then Dr. Endy has played many key roles including the co-founding of Gen9 in 2009, being recognized by the White House for the BioBrick Public Agreement in 2013, and in 2016 co-founded JIMB, a partnership between Stanford University and NIST to advance synthetic biology via sustained work in biometrology.

The “Foundational Technology Award” goes to Dr. Dan Gibson, Co-Founder of Synthetic Genomics Inc. Dr. Gibson developed a technique to allow for several inserts to be simultaneously assembled in a single reaction that takes as few as 15 minutes, allowing for the rapid generation of very large constructs. Since its invention in 2009, the Gibson Assembly® method rapidly spread throughout the world and has attracted interest from both the academic and commercial life sciences community due to its ease-of-use, flexibility and robustness. The technique enabled Synthetic Genomics, Inc. and the J. Craig Venter Institute to synthesize a complete bacterial genome in 2008, create the first synthetic cell in 2010, and in 2016 generate a minimal bacterial genome and engineer a completely new chassis organism called VMax.

For his mentorship and support of so many students and the nurturing of an industry, the “Entrepreneurial Leadership Award” goes to Dr. Christopher Voigt, Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. Dr. Voigt has served on the science advisory boards of DSM, Bolt Threads, Pivot Bio, Synlogic, Amyris, Zymergen, Biomillenia, Senti Biosciences and Twist Bioscience. Dr. Voigt is the Co-Director of the Synthetic Biology Center and Co-founder of the MIT-Broad Foundry. His lab is developing a programming language for cells and applying these tools to problems in biotechnology. His students and postdocs have gone on to found companies such as Bolt Threads, Industrial Microbes, Pivot Bio, Asilomar Bio, 20n and gone on to work at Synlogic, Eligo Biosciences, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Lattice Automation, Pronutria, Sample6, Ginkgo Bioworks, Autodesk, and Dupont.

“As the synthetic biology industry matures these awards recognize the spirit of the field and the passion that its practitioners and enablers have for making biology easier to engineer” said John Cumbers, Founder of SynBioBeta. “I’m excited to make these awards to these true pioneers in the synthetic biology industry.”

For more information on the conference or on how to obtain a press pass, please contact Brittney Norris, Director of Marketing for SynBioBeta by phone at +1 412-671-1715, by email at brittney.norris@synbiobeta.com or you can reach out to us through our website at www.synbiobeta.com.

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About SynBioBeta

SynBioBeta is the leading community of entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and enthusiasts devoted to the responsible growth of the synthetic biology field. They host international synthetic biology conferences and events that bring the entire community together several times each year, giving anyone the opportunity to meet with the bright minds building and shaping the bio economy.

SynBioBeta also offers a highly specialized weekly industry e-digest, news blog and educational courses in addition to providing companies in the industry with opportunities for advertising, exhibition and sponsorships for promotion.

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